Subverting Quotes & Sayings

Our tears are trying to serve a purpose, but we rarely let them. I don't know how we got started with subverting that purpose. — Hugh Howey

For a once renowned woman who loved telling tales of dodging bullets, wielding grenades and subverting dogs trained to kill, Christine's story is, surprisingly, little known today. — Clare Mulley

When we preach gospel of miracles instead of gospel of the kingdom, we are subverting gospel of the kingdom. — Sunday Adelaja

I wonder if we're truly subverting anything, or if we're just playing with a loaded gun. — Toure

I consider it ... as subverting the fundamental and characteristic principle of the Government ... and as bidding defiance to the sense in which the Constitution is known to have been proposed, advocated, and adopted. If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one. — James Madison

In the future, the churches will focus less on gaining political control of the levers of power and more on subverting power and the systems through which it is exercised, holding the powerful to account and shaping the contexts in which they operate. Drawing on the idea of 'the powers' that lie behind systems, institutions, and governments, the church will involve itself in identifying, examining, and exposing the 'idols' of the political system. — Jonathan Bartley

If the president uses executive orders to legislate new laws, that would be an example of him subverting legislative power from Congress, and might be considered a gross perversion of the Constitution. — Gary Hansen

It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics. — Robert A. Heinlein

While I have made errors that I deeply regret, I have never, ever done so with the intent of subverting the law or of benefiting myself. — Kevin Shelley

I like taking genres and subverting them. I did that with 'In the Valley of Elah.' I said, 'Okay, this is just a murder mystery. Relax.' And then, two thirds of the way through, I broke every convention of a murder mystery. — Paul Haggis

Those who have read history with discrimination know the fallacy of those panegyrics and invectives which represent individuals as effecting great moral and intellectual revolutions, subverting established systems, and imprinting a new character on their age. The difference between one man and another is by no means so great as the superstitious crowd suppose. — Thomas B. Macaulay

To call the American role in the world imperial was, for many who did so, a way of asserting that the United States was misusing its power beyond its borders and, in so doing, subverting its founding political principles within them. — Michael Mandelbaum

The most astonishing subset of the Deep Web is a collection of dark alleys called the Dark Web. The Dark Web is generally thought of as a collection of criminal elements intent on subverting the law, stealing our money, and possibly kidnapping our daughters. — John McAfee

Here is the operating motto of the Obama White House: 'So let it be written, so let it be done!' Like Yul Brynner's Pharaoh Ramses character in Cecil B. DeMille's 'The Ten Commandments,' the demander in chief stands with arms akimbo issuing daily edicts to his constitution-subverting minions. — Michelle Malkin

What, do you just wake up in the morning and say, 'I think I'll overtake a small country today,' or 'I wonder if there's a long-standing government policy that needs subverting? — Anna Scarlett

I know that my tendency is to be linear, and I'm trying to find ways to subvert that. And so in 'Bellocq's Ophelia' my device for subverting it was to tell the story and then to tell it again; it always circles back to this one moment, and it's not linear, but it's round in that way, and much of 'Native Guard' is like that. — Natasha Trethewey

I find it really interesting that people are shocked by the raw, natural representation of a woman and a man's body. I guess it's subverting our expectations in terms of how we've come to expect women to present themselves when they're being naked. Also the woman's and the man's role is subverted in that image. You'd expect the man to be carrying the woman. — Bat For Lashes

Instead of giving in to frustration, we can put it to good use. It can power our actions, which, unlike our disposition, become stronger and better when loose and bold. While others obsess with observing the rules, we're subtly undermining them and subverting them to our advantage. Think water. When dammed by a man-made obstacle, it does not simply sit stagnant. Instead, its energy is stored and deployed, fueling the power plants that run entire cities. — Anonymous

We often miss the irony that the same Paul who writes "submit to the authorities" goes to jail and is condemned for subverting the authorities! He — Shane Claiborne

If the Soviet Union and its allies were allowed to continue subverting democracy with terrorism and fomenting so-called "wars of national liberation" in Central America, it wouldn't stop there: It would spread into the continent of South America and north to Mexico. Then, as I was told that Lenin once said: "Once we have Latin America, we won't have to take the United States, the last bastion of capitalism, because it will fall into our outstretched hands like overripe fruit ... — Ronald Reagan

Judicial activists are nothing short of radicals in robes
contemptuous of the rule of law, subverting the Constitution at will, and using their public trust to impose their policy preferences on society. In fact, no radical political movement has been more effective in undermining our system of government than the judiciary. And with each Supreme Court term, we hold our collective breath hoping the justices will do no further damage, knowing full well they will disappoint. Such is the nature of judicial tyranny. — Mark R. Levin

we can achieve happiness not by remaking ourselves, but by subverting unhappiness. — Jan Ellison

We can only undo the election if the behavior meets the constitutional standard of subverting and threatening our system of government. — Zoe Lofgren

Money never seems to be interested in strengthening regulatory agencies, for example, but always in subverting them, in making them miss the danger signs in coal mines and in derivatives trading and in deep-sea oil wells. — Thomas Frank

One's nature comes from within, not from without. The abomination occurs in subverting one's instinct in favor of a rigid code written by others. Trying to force yourself into a role that confounds your spirit will always break you. — Garth Stein

All children find chaos congenial. Any unruliness, even by nature, advances the child's program of subverting authority. — George Will

Cutting and pasting is the essence of what hip-hop culture is all about for me. It's about drawing from what's around you, and subverting it and decontextualizing it. — DJ Shadow

The message of body acceptance built on Jennifer Lawrence's soundbites only empowers those who are willing to ignore the fact that her statements reinforce our current cultural views rather than subverting them. — Jennifer Armintrout

The prank is entitled "Subverting the Patriarchal Paradigm". — John Green

Art has often been and continues to be considered transcendent. I see this as misguided and, in fact, a way of subverting the powerful voice art can be in global discussions about politics, economics, society, culture, religion and international relations. — Aman Mojadidi

The most important thing to the United States is not being able to attack our adversaries, the most important thing is to be able to defend ourselves. And we can't do that as long as we're subverting our own security standards for the sake of surveillance. — Edward Snowden

When you are subverting the power of government, that's a fundamentally dangerous thing to democracy. — Edward Snowden